TSMC Gives NVIDIA Priority for 28nm Process

Posted on May 9, 2012 11:40 AM by Rob Williams

It’s been no secret that TSMC has been cursed in the move to 28nm, and it’s been even less of a secret that some of its clients aren’t too pleased about it. Most notable has been NVIDIA, which just released its first 28nm graphics cards, and has more in store for a summer release. There’s been rumors that NVIDIA would be considering a move to a competing fab, such as Globalfoundries or Samsung, and rumor or not, TSMC heard them loud and clear.

It’s now being reported that to save face, and a customer, TSMC has bumped NVIDIA to the top of the food chain, essentially becoming the company’s most important customer. This will no doubt keep NVIDIA around, at least for the interim. But the fact of the matter remains, if TSMC hasn’t sorted out its 28nm issues by now, then there’s still going to be a lot more than only NVIDIA that’s going to be affected by it.

For those uspet at the shortage of NVIDIA’s current GPUs, this is very good news.